As I mentioned last week, after the baby card blitz, the next category I’m dangerously low on (yes, you can be “dangerously low on” cards – it’s akin to Defcon 3, really) is wedding cards. I always drag my heels about getting on the wedding card train. I don’t feel like I can be very free-spirited about wedding cards. They should be beautiful, and have some sort of classy sentiment attached, because most people who have weddings and invite you to them are somewhat traditional about the event and, you know, don’t want to get crass jokes about getting married in their cards. So most of my wedding cards are beautiful…but maybe I will post a few of the funnier ones I’ve done another week.
This is a picture of a little machine I have which both embosses and cuts out shapes and designs. The embossing it does is the kind which raises a design in the paper, rather than the kind you do with a rubber stamp and embossing powder. You have to put the paper into a small embossing plate and then crank it through the machine under various pressure plates.
Here is a design template, and the following picture shows the card after it has gone through the press and been embossed. You can crank things through to cut out shapes as well. Some of the wedding quotes I use are printed on my laser printer and then cut out with pretty borders on the same little gadget. The Cuttlebug is probably the cheapest kind on the market (I think it was $60 at Walmart about four years ago). I thought I would start out small and then eventually buy a bigger, more elaborate, more expensive one if and when I needed to. I wanted to see if I would even use it before forking out precious cash (I’m pretty frugal, for those who don’t know me well.) Anyway, I use it all the time and I haven’t yet felt the need to get a better one – this little sucker is awesome!
Here is a card that has been cranked through wearing an embossing template.
In the two pics below I used a large stamp and some embossing ink, which is sticky, so that embossing powder will stick to the design when poured onto the stamped image. Instead of embossing powder though, I used coloured pearlized art powders which don’t get heat treated and just stick to the design so it ends up flat, rather than raised, like heated embossing powder would do. I apply the powder with a dry paintbrush.
I did a bunch of the pearlized stamped ones and a bunch of raised embossed ones in different colours and templates. I did many on ivory or pearl cardstock, but I did some on colours like lilac and light blue shades as well. The last ones I decided to do are larger than my usual 11x14cm cards. I had bought a few packages of Anna Griffin parchment paper in two elegant patterns that came with large invelopes – a more typical commercial card size. I found them in clearance at Winners for $1 per package and I couldn’t resist. I used the parchment paper for the main card, with an ivory insert inside. Here are the two parchments – one is pen and ink flourishes with writing in brown, and the other is a blue floral design.
This picture shows them tied with satin ribbon in brown, ivory and turquoise. The little die-cut shapes that say “congratulations” were cut out with the Cuttlebug machine. I used embosssing ink and a rubber stamp with the word “congratulations” on it to stamp them, and then used gold or silver embossing powder which is then melted with a heat gun. I like to hold the ribbon and little signs on using a hot glue gun because it sticks things really securely and dries almost instantly. But very little is needed or the paper can look bumpy.
Below are some finished cards.
The quotes I use are usually Shakespeare, and I have some too by Khalil Ghabran, Emily Barrett Browning, and even a Bible quote. I have added ribbon trim and parchment backgrounds – whatever struck me as pretty.
Next on my list is Mother’s Day. That is this week’s project, and I am hoping to post some felting soon as well. I have figures ready for several mobiles that need to be put together. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!
As I mentioned last week, after the baby card blitz, the next category I’m dangerously low on (yes, you can be “dangerously low on” cards – it’s akin to Defcon 3, really) is wedding cards. I always drag my heels about getting on the wedding card train. I don’t feel like I can be very free-spirited about wedding cards. They should be beautiful, and have some sort of classy sentiment attached, because most people who have weddings and invite you to them are somewhat traditional about the event and, you know, don’t want to get crass jokes about getting married in their cards. So most of my wedding cards are beautiful…but maybe I will post a few of the funnier ones I’ve done another week.
This is a picture of a little machine I have which both embosses and cuts out shapes and designs. The embossing it does is the kind which raises a design in the paper, rather than the kind you do with a rubber stamp and embossing powder. You have to put the paper into a small embossing plate and then crank it through the machine under various pressure plates.
Here is a card that has been cranked through wearing an embossing template.
In the two pics below I used a large stamp and some embossing ink, which is sticky, so that embossing powder will stick to the design when poured onto the stamped image. Instead of embossing powder though, I used coloured pearlized art powders which don’t get heat treated and just stick to the design so it ends up flat, rather than raised, like heated embossing powder would do. I apply the powder with a dry paintbrush.
I did a bunch of the pearlized stamped ones and a bunch of raised embossed ones in different colours and templates. I did many on ivory or pearl cardstock, but I did some on colours like lilac and light blue shades as well. The last ones I decided to do are larger than my usual 11x14cm cards. I had bought a few packages of Anna Griffin parchment paper in two elegant patterns that came with large invelopes – a more typical commercial card size. I found them in clearance at Winners for $1 per package and I couldn’t resist. I used the parchment paper for the main card, with an ivory insert inside. Here are the two parchments – one is pen and ink flourishes with writing in brown, and the other is a blue floral design.
This picture shows them tied with satin ribbon in brown, ivory and turquoise. The little die-cut shapes that say “congratulations” were cut out with the Cuttlebug machine. I used embosssing ink and a rubber stamp with the word “congratulations” on it to stamp them, and then used gold or silver embossing powder which is then melted with a heat gun. I like to hold the ribbon and little signs on using a hot glue gun because it sticks things really securely and dries almost instantly. But very little is needed or the paper can look bumpy.
Below are some finished cards.
The quotes I use are usually Shakespeare, and I have some too by Khalil Ghabran, Emily Barrett Browning, and even a Bible quote. I have added ribbon trim and parchment backgrounds – whatever struck me as pretty.
Next on my list is Mother’s Day. That is this week’s project, and I am hoping to post some felting soon as well. I have figures ready for several mobiles that need to be put together. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!